Eric Chinje, veteran Cameroonian journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Cameroon Radio and Television has called on European media gurus to set as a matter of urgency an agenda for African news coverage.

Chinje told a conference in Dortmund, Germany recently that “there is news behind news because there is always an interest.”

Chinje argued that ever since the partition of Africa, the continent that has a strong and dynamic population including a vast land area with abundant natural resources has problems.

Said the long-standing Cameroonian journalist: “African countries are the richest yet the most poorest because of what the multinationals are doing there. The shares are always between the corrupt African leaders and multinationals".

He noted that every place that has minerals has problems. Africa he observed was far and completely cut off from the entire planet. “This”, Chinje lamented has placed the continent in a most disadvantaged position economically.

Eric Chinje said that Africans are dying in the Mediterranean every day and some are starving but the media in Europe is not interested in knowing. Chinje revealed that the creation of a new African news reporting policy would stimulate economic development as well as enable the Africans to inspire confidence in their respective governments.

The forum that was jointly organized by Deutsche Welle, Africa Positive and the Institute for International Journalism, Dortmund University grouped journalists and university lecturers from around the globe.